试题库在线考试题库-历年真题模拟试题及答案-考博英语在线试题测试中心-希赛网

宁波大学

Volcanic fire and glacial ice are natural enemies. Eruptions at glaciated volcanoes typically destroy ice fields, as they did in 1980 when 70% of Mount Saint Helens ice cover was demolished. During long dormant intervals, glaciers gain the upper hand cutting deeply into volcanic cones and eventually reducing them to rubble. Only rarely do these competing forces of heat and cold operate in perfect balance to create a phenomenon such as the steam caves at Mount Rainier National Park.Located inside Rainier’s two ice-filled summit craters, these caves form a labyrinth of tunnels and vaulted chambers about one and one-half miles in total length. Their creation depends on an unusual combination of factors that nature almost never brings together in one place. The cave-making recipe calls for a steady emission of volcanic gas and heat, a heavy annual snowfall at an elevation high enough to keep it from melting during the summer, and a bowl-shaped crater to hold the snow.Snow accumulating yearly in Rainier’s summit craters is compacted and compressed into a dense form of ice called firm, a substance midway between ordinary ice and the denser crystalline ice that makes up glaciers. Heat rising from numerous opening (called fumaroles) along the inner crater walls melts out chambers between the rocky walls and the overlying ice pack. Circulating currents of warm air then melt additional openings in the firm ice, eventually connecting the individual chambers and, in the larger of Rainier’s two craters, forming a continuous passageway that extends two-thirds of the way around the crater s interior.To maintain the cave system, the elements of fire under ice must remain in equilibrium. Enough snow must fill the crater each year to replace that melted from below. If too much volcanic heat is discharged, the crater’s ice pack will melt away entirely and the caves will vanish along with the snows of yesteryear. If too little heat is produced, the ice, replenished annually by winter snowstorms, will expand, pushing against the enclosing crater walls and smothering the present caverns in solid firn ice.31. With what topic is the passage mainly concerned?32. According to the passage, long periods of volcanic inactivity can lead to a volcanic cone’s ______.33. The second paragraph mentions all of the following as necessary elements in the creation of steam caves EXCEPT ______.34. According to the passage, heat from Mount Rainier’s summit craters rises from ______.35. “smothering” (Paragraph 4) means ______.

Bank of America, holding company for the San Francisco-based Bank of America, was once unchallenged as the nation’s biggest banking organization. At its peak, it had more branches in California, 1,100, than the U.S. Postal Service. It was also a highly profitable enterprise. But since 1980, Bank of America’s earnings have been down or flat. From March 1985 to March 1986, for example, earnings per share dropped 50.8 percent. Samuel H. Armacost, president and CEO, has confessed that he doesn’t expect a turnaround soon.Some of Bank of America’s old magic seems to have rubbed off on New York’s Citibank, perennial rival for top banking honors. Thanks to aggressive growth policies, Citicorp’s assets topped Bank of America’s for the first time in 1983 and by a healthy margin. Citibank has also been generating profits at a fast clip, enabling it to spend lavishly on campaigns to enter new markets — notably Bank of America’s turf in California.The bad times Bank of America is currently facing are partly the result of the good times the bank enjoyed earlier. Based in a large and populous state and operating in a regulated environment, Bank of America thrived. Before deregulation, banks could not compete by offering savers a higher return, so they competed with convenience. With a branch at every crossroads, Bank of America was able to attract 40 percent of the California deposit market — a source of high earnings when the legal maximum payable to depositors was much lower than the interest on loans.The progressive deregulation of banking forced Bank of America to fight for its customers by offering them competitive rates. But how could this mammoth bureaucracy, with its expensive overhead, offer rates as attractive as its loaner competitors? Pruning the establishment was foremost in the minds of Bank of America policymakers. But cutbacks have proceeded slowly. Although the bank is planning to consolidate by offering full services only in key branches, so far only about 40 branches have been closed. Cutbacks through attrition have reduced the work force from 83,000 to fewer than 73,000; wholesale layoffs, it seems, would not fit the tradition of the organization. And they would intensify the morale problems that already threaten the institution.26. According to the passage, New York’s Citibank ______.27. Which of the following is NOT the reason for which Bank of America thrived?28. The phrase “mammoth bureaucracy” (Line 2, Paragraph 4) refers to ______.29. Now the most important factor for a bank to win in competition seems to be ______.30. Which of the following conclusions can’t be drawn from the passage?

The mental health movement in the United States began with a period of considerable enlightenment. Dorothea Dix was shocked to find the mentally ill in jails and almshouses and crusaded for the establishment of asylums in which people could receive humane care in hospital-like environments and treatment which might help restore them to sanity. By the mid 1800s, 20 states had established asylums, but during the late 1800s and early 1900s, in the face of economic depression, legislatures were unable to appropriate sufficient funds for decent care. Asylums became overcrowded and prison-like. Additionally, patients were more resistant to treatment than the pioneers in the mental health field had anticipated, and security and restraint were needed to protect patients and others. Mental institutions became frightening and depressing places in which the rights of patients were all but forgotten.These conditions continued until after World War II. At that time, new treatments were discovered for some major mental illnesses theretofore considered untreatable (penicillin for syphilis of the brain and insulin treatment for schizophrenia and depressions), and a succession of books, motion pictures, and newspaper exposes called attention to the plight of the mentally ill. Improvements were made and Dr. David Vail’s Humane Practices Program is a beacon for today. But changes were slow in coming until the early 1960s. At that time, the Civil Rights movement led lawyers to investigate America’s prisons, which were disproportionately populated by blacks, and they in turn followed prisoners into the only institutions that were worse than the prisons—the hospitals for the criminally insane. The prisons were filled with angry young men who, encouraged by legal support, were quick to demand their rights. The hospitals for the criminally insane, by contrast, were populated with people who were considered “crazy” and who were often kept obediently in their place through the use of severe bodily restraints and large doses of major tranquilizers. The young cadre of public interest lawyers liked their role in the mental hospitals. The lawyers found a population that was both passive and easy to champion. These were, after all, people who, unlike criminals, had done nothing wrong. And in many states, they were being kept in horrendous institutions, an injustice, which once exposed, was bound to shock the public and, particularly, the judicial conscience. Patients’ rights groups successfully encouraged reform by lobbying in state legislatures.Judicial intervention has had some definite positive effect, but there is growing awareness that courts cannot provide the standards and the review mechanisms that assure good patient care. The details of providing day-to-day care simply cannot be mandated by a court, so it is time to take from the courts the responsibility for delivery of mental health care and assurance of patient rights and return it to the state mental health administrators to whom the mandate was originally given. Though it is a difficult task, administrators must undertake to write rules and standards and to provide the training and surveillance to assure that treatment is given and patient rights are respected.21. The main purpose of the passage is to ______.22. The author’s attitude toward people who are patients in state institutions can best be described as ______.23. It can be inferred from the passage that, if the Civil Rights movement hadn’t prompted an investigation of prison conditions, ______.24. The tone of the final paragraph can best be described as ______.25. According to the passage, mental hospital conditions were radically changed because of ______.

World leaders need to take action on the energy crisis that is taking shape before our eyes. Oil prices are (1) and it looks less and less likely that this is a bubble. The price of coal has doubled. Countries as far apart as South Africa and Tajikistan are (2) by power cuts. Rich states, no longer strangers to periodic blackouts (断电), are worried about (3) of energy supply. In the developing world, 1.6 billion people—around a quarter of the human race—have no (4) to electricity.I believe that fundamental changes are (5) in the energy field whose significance we have not yet fully grasped. Global (6) for energy is rising fast as the population increases and developing countries such as China and India (7) dramatic economic growth. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says the world’s energy needs could be 50% (8) in 2030 than they are today. Yet the fossil fuels on which the world still depends are (9) and far from environmentally friendly. Serious thought needs to be given now to creating feasible (10). The need for coordinated political action on energy and related (11)—climate change and alleviating poverty, to name but two—has never been more (12). Yet there is no global energy (13) in which the countries of the world can agree (14) joint solutions to the potentially enormous problems we see (15).So does the world really need yet another international organization? (16), yes. A global energy organization would (17), not replace, bodies already active in the energy field. It would bring a vital inter-governmental (18) to bear on issues which cannot be left to (19) forces alone, such as the development of new energy technology, the role of nuclear power and innovative solutions for reducing pollution and greenhouse gas (20).

Directions: Carefully read the following passage and write a short composition of about 250 to 300 words. You should write the composition on the ANSWER SHEET. Note that your score will be awarded mainly on the base of content, logic, style and language. (30 points)The five-game clash pitting man against machine was over in March 2016, with Google’s artificial intelligence program winning the series. The program—called AlphaGo—took four of five games against Korean Lee Sedol, an 18-time world champion of the board game Go.[Note: Go 围棋]Why is this achievement of science helpful or disastrous to human beings? An argumentative is expected to support your viewpoint.

5 / 18